The Buckeye Thread

[slfarms]

Hooray!  I have a broody buckeye!  Since Wednesday she's been giving us the stinkiest of stink eye and her fiercest dragon growl.  So I've been in contact with a breeder who will hopefully be shipping me a box full of cuckoo marans eggs on Monday to stick under her.  Now I just have to figure out which of the wire dog crates will fit in the coop best and get her set up in a corner all her own.

Congrats!!! She sounds like she's in the mood. I have one right now being the same way. I'm not sure what all she has under her as she's out with the Phoenix, leghorn and other bucks used just for our egg consumption.

 

[FireAntFarmer]

I have four of the coolest buckeye hens anyone could ask for....well at least they are since I got rid of the obnoxious rooster that was trying to kill me.
However, I woke one day to find that one of my hens has turned into a turkey. That's right, you heard me!

How can a perfectly happy and peaceful hen suddenly and without warning decide she is a turkey?
Her cluck is completely different. Unless I'm dropping bread crumbs or chicken crack, she gets all Pluffed up, puts her head down and spreads her tail out until she looks like a turkey. Then she runs away from me or trying to bluff me with a short run towards me and then freezes until I get too close or reach down and pet her, then she freaks out and runs away again all "Pluffy". I think she has lost her mind.

Could one of you experts please tell me what is going on. Is she broody? Has she taken on the role of alpha hen since the roosters departure?
Thanks!

 

[sumi]

I have four of the coolest buckeye hens anyone could ask for....well at least they are since I got rid of the obnoxious rooster that was trying to kill me.
However, I woke one day to find that one of my hens has turned into a turkey. That's right, you heard me!

How can a perfectly happy and peaceful hen suddenly and without warning decide she is a turkey?
Her cluck is completely different. Unless I'm dropping bread crumbs or chicken crack, she gets all Pluffed up, puts her head down and spreads her tail out until she looks like a turkey. Then she runs away from me or trying to bluff me with a short run towards me and then freezes until I get too close or reach down and pet her, then she freaks out and runs away again all "Pluffy". I think she has lost her mind.

Could one of you experts please tell me what is going on. Is she broody? Has she taken on the role of alpha hen since the roosters departure?
Thanks!

It sounds like your hen has gone broody. They do lose their minds when that happens and yes, it's quite a personality change! When she's not behaving like a turkey is she spending a lot of time sitting in the nest box and/or stealing eggs?

 

[Marengoite]

I have four of the coolest buckeye hens anyone could ask for....well at least they are since I got rid of the obnoxious rooster that was trying to kill me.
However, I woke one day to find that one of my hens has turned into a turkey. That's right, you heard me!

How can a perfectly happy and peaceful hen suddenly and without warning decide she is a turkey?
Her cluck is completely different. Unless I'm dropping bread crumbs or chicken crack, she gets all Pluffed up, puts her head down and spreads her tail out until she looks like a turkey. Then she runs away from me or trying to bluff me with a short run towards me and then freezes until I get too close or reach down and pet her, then she freaks out and runs away again all "Pluffy". I think she has lost her mind.

Could one of you experts please tell me what is going on. Is she broody? Has she taken on the role of alpha hen since the roosters departure?
Thanks!

She's twitterpated. It's the lengthening daylight and it's affecting all the birds. Spring mating/nesting antics. She's probably looking for a handsome roo to pay her some attention.

 

[sumi]

She's twitterpated. It's the lengthening daylight and it's affecting all the birds. Spring mating/nesting antics. She's probably looking for a handsome roo to pay her some attention.

Sounds like Spring finally arrived and about time too!

 

[Marengoite]

I think for the most part that people who are attracted to Buckeyes are also mostly following the basic "heritage" ideas - that is, we tend to pick them because they're good, useful free rangers as well as being attractive and functional and delicious.

But nearly any LF APA breed is going to be self-propagating and self-propagated. Whether the adults were raised on pasture has little bearing on whether the chicks can be, though some breeds are more suited to outdoor life than others.

Buckeyes are a great breed and definitely worth preserving as a heritage breed suitable for homesteading and as a serious alternative to the commercial meat cross for a small farm.

Getting your stock from a responsible steward of the breed, whatever breed it is, is a good way to help insure that we will continue to have those responsible stewards doing so.

This is well stated. The vast majority of chicken breeds available in the US will fit the definition of "heritage" as he stated it. Other than Cornish Cross and hybrid layers, everything else in the chicken world appears to fit the definition as described. Other than the broodiness, which has been bred out of most "heritage" fowl including Buckeyes, the description fits pretty much the whole APA catalog of breeds.

 

[FireAntFarmer]

It sounds like your hen has gone broody. They do lose their minds when that happens and yes, it's quite a personality change! When she's not behaving like a turkey is she spending a lot of time sitting in the nest box and/or stealing eggs?

All four hens share one nest no matter what I do. They toss my plastic easter egg to a different part of the coop and ignore it. If I try to shift their laying spot, they throw the plastic egg aside and will actually move all the eggs (that I moved and left in the new spot) all the way across the coop where "they" have decided they want to lay. No sitting for her at all other than just to lay, then she goes on with life. strange

thanks to both of you for you answer

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
They're actually tossing the plastic egg!! It sounds like they're not fooled at all. I've had really great results with these ceramic eggs: http://www.randallburkey.com/1-Dozen-Ceramic-Eggs/productinfo/10235/BROWN/#.U2ZzECg4kW8. All my hens think they're the real thing, which is important for hens that free range so they don't move their nests and I have to spend days looking under every bush on 10 acres.

If you don't want to buy a dozen you may be able to get your local farm store to stock them -- that's actually where I get mine. If you do decide to order from Randall Burkey but don't want to pay the shipping charge, they regularly have sale promotions for free shipping. Just get on their e-mail list.

There's probably some reason why they don't like the new spot. Try to look at both spots from their perspective. Many birds are resistant to moving their nests, but if you make the new one more desirable and the old one less desirable you can often get them moved. But it has to be more desirable to them, not just to you, so try to think like a hen when you set it up.

 

[Chickielady]

This is well stated. The vast majority of chicken breeds available in the US will fit the definition of "heritage" as he stated it. Other than Cornish Cross and hybrid layers, everything else in the chicken world appears to fit the definition as described. Other than the broodiness, which has been bred out of most "heritage" fowl including Buckeyes, the description fits pretty much the whole APA catalog of breeds.

Wrong there, Buckeyes as well as most other heritage American breeds are fully self sufficient...and that includes beginning lay well after spring, and stopping lay in early fall, thus the hens preserve themselves and not spend a tad of energy on laying all winter for the likes of us.
Contrare, Back Javas, and Buckeyes, and other heritage breeds, will stop lay, and keep there nutirition to themselves.
Likewise, they will begin lay far after spring, and when they do lay, they will become broody, and they are the best brooders, and mothers/fathers.
Buckeye Mommas are excellent mothers !
And no Mam, the broodnimess is not bred out of Buckeyes.
I had 5-6 at a time, in a flock of 8 hens.
Same with my Black Javas.....these heritage breeds are self sustaining.
They take care of themselves.

 

[slfarms]

I've not found mine to be broody in the years I've had them. Only two out of 20 hens went broody. And the other hens killed all but two chicks out of one clutch.

That's out of three different lines.